This is an oak ice box that came out of a very old, (and rather creepy) red brick building that was once the original home of Camp Togowauk (now Camp for Kids) on Russell Rd. It was my understanding that the building was a pest house which is an isolation hospital for communicable deseases like small pox, maybe dating back to the 1700 and 1800s. The building had four rooms and a small room as an entryway. There was an attic with a copperlined wooden bathtub. The bathroom on the first floor was a water closet. The cellar had a huge well and two smaller bricked rooms that resembled cells. Unfortunately, I have not found any solid information in print. John Lockwoods history does mention a pest house, but it was wood. He also mentions it housing several revolutionary soldiers. This location makes sense with that information as construction workers at the college (which is right above this area)supposedly found bones attributed to soldiers from that era. Lockwood also talks about a fine if people came into town without waiting several days after leaving the pest house. The building was torn down in the early 1970s. Rick Sullivan mentioned that a Westfield lawyer was living there before the city took it for the camp. My next stop is library.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:31:20 +0000
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